


polyrhythm

by morphogenesis



Category: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors - Fandom, Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Post-Canon, implied crushin and bad matchmaking, with all the secondhand embarrassment that entails
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-06 04:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1102655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morphogenesis/pseuds/morphogenesis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fields invite Junpei to spend Christmas with them, and turn out to not be as subtle or great at matchmaking as they think they are. (Implied Snake/Junpei crushing, light 999 spoilers.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	polyrhythm

**Author's Note:**

> For my zecretsanta, nearsightedpandas!

Christmas wasn't a big deal in Junpei's family, so he wasn't sure what to expect when Clover and Light invited him to spend it at their new apartment.

"We're going to make dinner and my brother might play his music -- he's awesome, you have to hear him. It'd be awesome to have you there!" Clover'd said over the phone.

Facing the prospect of spending the holidays passing through more strange cities on buses and trains, looking for someone who didn't want to be found, a holiday with the Fields (as awkward as it might be) was appealing. So Junpei went.

Their apartment was a studio where the couch and chair that made up their seating were wedged so close together he saw black marks they'd left on the wall, and his knees kept bumping into either Light's or Clover's when he shifted on the couch where they were drinking beer.

"Light," -- Clover pulled on her brother's arm, and he turned his head toward her -- "Come on, play your harp, you've been stalling all night."

"I only want to perform for an...appreciative audience, Clover," he said in that condescending sigh Junpei always seemed to hear in his voice.

Clover smiled a little cruelly. "Oh, like paying audiences? Yeah, Junpei, where's your wallet?"  


With a laugh, her hands dove into the front-pocket of his sweatshirt, searching for and finding his wallet, and pulled it out and began searching for bills all while Junpei tried to push her away to little success.

"Ah! Hey, I need that to get out of town! Give it back -- Clover!"

Looking to her brother for some word of support, he just saw Light was smiling, the small smirk half-hidden in his jacket collar, and then a small chuckle followed.

"Thanks," Junpei said dryly, and then a bill flew past his face, fluttering to a halt mid-air and falling onto Light's knee.

He picked it up with two fingers and offered it back to Junpei with that smile still on his lips.

Ass, Junpei thought as he took it back.

He'd begun to suspect he'd been invited to be bullied for their amusement, happy holidays.

"No, I meant, my usual audience has a certain appreciation for my art already. I don't want to force Junpei to listen to something outside of his taste."

"Hey! Are you saying I'm not cultured enough to get it? I'm cultured! I'm cultured as shit! Play that harp!"

This seemed to be what Light had wanted initially -- because his smirk turned into a cat's smile, and he slowly unfolded his legs, set down his drink, and got up to sit behind the standing harp that was staring Junpei down from across the table.

"You'll totally like it, Light's great," Clover insisted, and Light coughed from his seat, a little too forceful to be incidental.

Clover, stop laying it on thick, it was saying.

Junpei...wasn't sure whether to be surprised or perfectly accepting of this, to be honest. But! He was going to be nice about it no matter how weird it sounded. He was so nice! Junpei was going to so into this even if it killed him!

Light didn't play from traditional notation, obviously, although before he started Junpei noticed him skimming a finger over a particular paper he'd pulled from a sheaf. Braille music.

"You know, you're hearing a composition not even my fans have yet, Junpei," was all he said by way of introduction, and then he began to play.

The notes were shimmering in the air, and the melody sedate like flowing water to begin with, and Junpei wasn't great at critically listening to music per se, so the transition to something quirkier and faster than he thought the harp could produce hit him suddenly. He watched Light's fingers pick up speed until they flew over the strings, his eyes closed and his head perfectly still even though his arms were moving precisely and quickly from one section to the next. Junpei seemed to remember Clover describing him as a good singer too, but he didn't sing for this piece at least, although occasionally under the harp he heard him humming low in his throat, adding to the melody without distracting from it.

It was a little out there, and not something Junpei would listen to on his own, but it was pretty cool despite himself.

"Damn, that was pretty cool!"

Light nodded slightly toward him. "Thank you," was all he said.

He started to get up, quietly and without much expression, and Junpei thought maybe the problem was he hadn't made it clear enough that he appreciated it.

"No, it really is! I liked the, uh....." What was something that he could say about music that sounded intelligent? "That it didn't sound like harp music."

Light raised an eyebrow. "Is the harp supposed to be boring?"

"No, I didn't mean that!"

He picked up his beer and stood there instead of sitting down. "Thank you for listening to me, Clover, Junpei -- especially Junpei for doing something so outside of his comfort zone."

Junpei was about to protest, but then he saw: That smile was back.

Light was teasing him, like a cat teases its littermate instead of its prey -- the claws were still there, but they were, at least, not intending to draw blood, only to shake him up a bit.

Junpei's shoulders lowered and he laughed uncomfortably, and when Light joined him, it was a little darker, but still amused.

The night passed on uneventfully -- dinner was acquired with only minimal chaos that three twentysomethings could produce in a kitchen, and though it wasn't the feast Clover half-nostalgically, half-mournfully described from their parents' house, it was still food. So: convenience-store prepackaged dinners, chips, and a cake that Clover claimed she made but Junpei saw the black crud that looked so thick it was probably sealing the oven shut and guessed she'd thrown away the store packaging before he came.

They listened to more weird music while they ate and had some old fantasy movie on; Clover also insisted these were Traditions and Junpei didn't question them because Christmas seemed like a highly personal thing for the Fields.

They even had highly specific seating arrangements that meant Clover kept trying to stick him in between them, on Light's right side, or she kept taking the table side opposite them so they were still next to each other when Junpei insisted there was no room. Junpei didn't know what was up with that -- Light seemed to though, as he kept clearing his throat or clicking his tongue every time Clover insisted on it, and she'd switch gears and tell him she just happened to want to sit like this, okay?

Despite their supposed status as renegade runaways, their mom called them halfway through dinner and they traded the phone between them, sometimes interrupting and finishing each other's sentences as they spoke over each other, and as the conversation dragged on he watched them get much less animated. Clover's cheeks puffed out more and her mouth tightened and Light began to frown, until he took the phone from Clover and said they'd call her back later, they were busy with their party.

Their party of three, Junpei thought as he sipped his beer and looked at anywhere else in the room.

He picked at his cake and continued watching the movie without much interest until Clover got up, set two new beers down between Junpei and Light, and yawned with too much gusto to be real.  


"I'm tiiired, I'm gonna lay down. Have fun!"

And with aplomb, she threw herself down on the mattress tucked behind the privacy curtain that was forming her bedroom. There was the rustling of sheets as she seemed to keep moving from the bed to the curtain and back again, but finally it settled.

It was quiet between them for a moment, and Junpei drained his old beer to avoid breaking the silence first, when Light cleared his throat.

"Thanks for this." His voice was gentler and with no affectation. "It meant a lot to Clover that you came, and I..." He paused, tilting his head, before finally settling on: "Didn't have a bad time."

"Um, no problem. What's with Clover anyway? Was she scared we wouldn't get along or something?"

"That..." -- Light raised his drink -- "Is between Clover and I for now, but who knows? If you prove yourself trustworthy, maybe I'll explain it to you one day."

Junpei snorted. "Yeah, okay. That's the closest I'm getting to an answer, huh?"

Light acted like Junpei hadn't said anything, and took another drink.

Sitting in the blue-dark of the room with half-eaten cake and sipping alcohol with Light wasn't a bad time, all told. After he left, it was one of the moments Junpei would remember about his time with the Fields with the most clarity: Just them, sitting in the blue-darkness with an unfinished conversation that he felt no need to rush, and in fact looked forward to its resolution in due time, after a lot more beer and a lot more time spent talking about nothing in the dark.


End file.
